This is from today's Houston Chronicle:

Sept. 26, 2005, 10:46AM

"AFTER HURRICANE RITA Question remains: What's for dinner?What do you do with the prepared food you bought?

Canned beans. Canned tuna. Canned soup. Canned fruit. Canned chicken. Toss in a few jars of peanut butter and nuts; a stash of tortillas; some dried soup and beef jerky. Thankfully, Rita by and large stood Houston up. So on Saturday morning, instead of wading through floods and chowing down on crackers dipped in cold Dinty Moore Beef Stew, I found myself relaxing with friends, happily digging into a plateful of soy-milk waffles topped with maple and raspberry syrups and sipping a very civilized cup of coffee and frothed milk.

So what to do with your larder of hurricane food?"

This author said ordinarily she's not the kind of girl you would find on the canned goods aisle. You've got to be kidding! Are there really people who never eat canned food?

I'll tell you what I am doing with our "hurricane food". We are eating it. We didn't run out of anything. We had food, water, batteries, propane lanterns.....you name it. And I won't have to do much of any grocery shopping for a long time. The bottled water will last about 6 weeks.

I didn't buy anything that we don't ordinarily eat. I didn't have to buy tuna, since we already had 14 cans. Beth loves tuna. And some will think this is weird, but I like Spam. Yes, you heard me. I only bought 4 cans, since I am the only one that will eat it. But slice it and fry it in the pan like bacon. Then pair it with eggs. It's good.

The chili went on hot dogs tonight. The breakfast bars will be eaten for....breakfast. Or snacks. The canned green beans will get a sprinkle of Italian salad dressing, and heated in the microwave. The ramen noodle stash already has a good sized dent in it.

And as for that woman eating cold Dinty Moore Beef Stew, there's no excuse for that. With the heat we have been having, even without power, she could just set it out in the sun and it would be hot. (It was about 100 here today, but the high in Waco was 108 degrees. In September.)